Local leaders remember back to 9 / 11

Local leaders in Geary County reflected back to that day 18 years ago and their thoughts at the time.

Junction City Commissioners Phyllis Fitzgerald was working that morning at the Mission Training Complex at Fort Riley. I happened toward my cubicle area at the news and saw one of the planes crash into the World Trade Center. ” Fitzgerald noted it’s something none of us will ever forget.

Geary County Commissioner Keith Ascher said he remembers the most when the airlines were shut down and there were no jet streams that day. He remembered a former local resident Bill Caspar died in the attacks on the twin towers. “So that was a really sad moment. ”

Geary USD 475 Board of Education member Jim Schmidt remembered it as a surreal experience once he began to learn about what had happened. He was in Illinois at the time. ” I think the realization when it really hit home was sometime early evening on Sept. 11th of that year we could see one contrail going through the sky, and after the fact realized that was Air Force One because everything had been grounded and there was only one plane left in the sky. And that’s when it really all sunk in.”

The 1st Infantry Division and Fort Riley will hold a 9 / 11 commemoration ceremony at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Global War on Terrorism monument located on the east side of the Cavalry Parade Field. Since those attacks Big Red One Soldiers have been involved in extensive conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.